By Victoria Plum 
By Victoria Plum
On Tuesday evening, Reepham Town Hall was full, and extra chairs had to be got for September’s Reepham & District Gardening Club meeting. The buildup was worthwhile because Ajay Tegala proved to be a capable, charming and professional speaker.
Having driven from Welney he was full of enthusiasm and explained how his love for, and interest in, active conservation had been inspired by childhood events. He quickly won over the audience who sat enraptured; Ajay had been enchanted by wildlife and is keen to pass his enthusiasm on to others, particularly children.
Some of his work has to do with counting and monitoring bird numbers: how do you know how well they are doing this year if you don’t know how many were there last year, and the year before?
And how do you monitor 4,000 Sandwich terns? You need to count endless, random eggs camouflaged amongst countless pebbles on a huge beach. And how do you check which ones you have counted? Who would think the answer would be pasta?
Count out, for instance, 1,000 pieces of penne pasta into a bag, drop one piece by every egg and when you have done the entire area and you have two bits of penne left you know that you have counted 998 eggs or “nests”. You can easily check which eggs have been counted because there will be a bit of pasta, which is non-polluting, by each one.
I was interested to see that Konik ponies, and a breeding herd too, are used at Wicken Fen to keep scrub growth at bay and naturally spread seeds via their dung and hairy coats.
Wicken Fen is being expanded by flooding areas that had previously been drained for farming, and these small Polish horses cope better with wetland conditions than our native, ponies which are mostly from higher, drier areas.
It was altogether a fascinating evening.
Earlier, we drove up a perfectly ordinary road towards Boundary junction, Norwich, then into the perfectly ordinary Waldemar Avenue, passing the perfectly ordinary grass and bordered gardens and, having parked, were welcomed into the extraordinary garden of Sonja Gaffer.
She was inspired by the late Will Giles’ fabulous south-facing garden at Thorpe (he gave a talk to the gardening club some years ago). He grew banana plants and many exotic and exciting plants, and she followed suit with a whole exotic microcosm in what had been an ordinary suburban garden.
In 20 years, she has filled, jam-packed I should say, a relatively small space with more plants than you can imagine.
She told us the history of her ideas, described how huge tender trees are carted up into the house loft, others into shelter against the cold winter.
Then there was time for tea and cake, and we picked Sonja’s brains about hardiness and names of the exotica, and all the stuff gardeners are fascinated with.
We arranged this visit at the last minute; if you would like to be alerted to any exciting trips suggested by members, please ensure the gardening club committee has your email address.
Join us for the next meeting at Reepham Town Hall to hear Simon Partridge update us on How Hill, Ludham, on Tuesday 15 October at 7.30 pm.
And keep an eye open for any plants to bring to the bag sale in November: this is a good chance to pick up something interesting and pass your excess plants on to someone else.
If you are not a member of the gardening club do come along as a guest, everyone is welcome.
Top photo: Exotic blooms at Waldemar Avenue, Norwich. Photo: Eileen Lerpiniere. Below: Reepham & District Gardening Club members at Waldemar Avenue, Norwich. Photo: Tina Sutton
Geoff Fisher